Chancellor Mildred Garcia of the California State University used Sonoma State as an example of how systemwide reductions have begun to affect campuses.

"The recently announced yet necessary and extremely painful cost reduction measures at Sonoma State are an anonymous indication of future impacts across the system," Garcia told the subcommittee, urging support to avoid more program suspensions and course reductions.

Members of the public, faculty and students described immediate consequences at Sonoma State University and urged the Legislature to reject large cuts to the CSU. Testimony from campus faculty and graduate students described program eliminations, declines in course offerings and staffing uncertainty.

Don Romesburg, chair of Womens and Gender Studies at Sonoma State, told the committee that his 55-year-old program serves marginalized populations and that staff and students were "devastated" by proposed eliminations and layoffs. "They will not be retained by the institution," he said of students served by the program.

Geology professor Matty Mukherjee said he learned about planned eliminations in a mass email and warned the committee of public-safety consequences if the pipeline for geoscientists shrinks. "Eliminating this program endangers public safety and undermines California's ability to meet pressing housing shortages, environmental challenges, protecting our water resources, and maintaining disaster preparedness," Mukherjee said.

Student commenters and campus union representatives echoed those concerns. Sean Ramos, a Sonoma State student, said faculty and students were "at a loss" and that some students were leaving higher education entirely because of program cuts. UAW and other union representatives urged the Legislature to fully fund higher education so administrators would not need to cut programs.

Assemblymember James Ramos and other legislators raised detailed questions in the hearing about the campus-level impacts. Chancellor Garcia provided preliminary figures in response to an inquiry and offered to provide more formal documentation: she told the committee she would follow up with a detailed campus impact memo, and she said campuses were working on strategic enrollment and academic plans tied to community needs.

No subcommittee action or vote occurred on campus operations during the hearing. Legislators said they would hold further hearings focused on specific campus proposals and reserves.

Ending: Faculty, students and unions urged the subcommittee to reject broad cuts and to support dedicated funding for campuses facing sustained enrollment decline; the Legislature requested more detailed, campus-level data to evaluate short- and long-term responses.